CactiGuide.com

I killed a lot of cacti when I was inexperienced, I do much better now.

I do have an idea for making a removable cover for the wagon with a couple pieces of 2x2 and wire hoops covered with clear vinyl. The point being that I wouldn't have to move it under cover during rainy spells.

greenknight wrote: ↑Fri Jun 17, 2022 4:59 am I killed a lot of cacti when I was inexperienced, I do much better now.

I do have an idea for making a removable cover for the wagon with a couple pieces of 2x2 and wire hoops covered with clear vinyl. The point being that I wouldn't have to move it under cover during rainy spells.

Greenknight; Did you..not very encouraging that quote either..

Sounds like a good idea. As it rains a lot and quite often at times here ( and quite suddenly too) I would have had to be at home all the time, being ready to run outside and cover the cacti, if I should have had a roofless outdoor area for my cacti.

Mrs Green.
How about some updated pictures of the overall collection. Lets see how its grown and how you have things laid out. I'm assuming it's no longer a "windowsill" collection
Mike M

I just realized you're a Norway grower. Makes your blog a lot more interesting, it feels as if keeping any cactus alive in that climate is a challenge.

mikethecactusguy wrote: ↑Sun Jun 19, 2022 6:55 pm Mrs Green.
How about some updated pictures of the overall collection. Lets see how its grown and how you have things laid out. I'm assuming it's no longer a "windowsill" collection
Mike M

Hi Mikethecactusguy I am not sure what you mean by ‘no longer a windowsill collection’?

nes wrote: ↑Mon Jun 20, 2022 4:25 am I just realized you're a Norway grower. Makes your blog a lot more interesting, it feels as if keeping any cactus alive in that climate is a challenge.

Hi Nes Yes my growing conditions differs a lot from the majority(?) of the members here I would guess. Just to give you an idea; the last of the snow in the garden disappeared in the first days of june. The last 14 days the temperature have been between 5-15 ( night-day temperatures) degrees celsius and only a few days with sun , apart from a couple of hours here and there. Summer temperatures above 20 degrees celsius is considered hot, it’s more normal with daytime temperatures between 12-15. But it can vary a bit from year to year and of course it depends on how much sun we get each day.

The wise thing would be keeping mostly epiphytic cacti, as these ( the species I have experience with) seems to like the climate here ( and the indoors temps). So far this year I have seen very little growth from the non-epiphytes, and I am not that surprised, considering the weather/ temperatures so far.

I have all my cacti indoors. I would love a greenhouse but I would have had an all year round GH in that case. Which would be very expencive heating in the winter, so I will stick with indoor growing.

I have to admit that it can be a bit demotivating to see pics from growers in warmer places, they cacti grows like weed ( it seems at least) and flowers abundantly too. But then again, it feels like a small victory when my own cacti flowers

So..I have found out from first hand experience that Lithops aren’t gremlins The ones i bought last year I split and potted up in five different pots. With a bit of different substrate in each pot. Some in pure gravel and others in different mixes with soil. The ones in the kitchen did split but even with careful watering looked a bit sad and wrinkly. So I decided to do an experiment with the kitchen ones.( three different pots). I soaked them in water or rather poured water on them to it came out from the bottom and the gravel was soaking wet. ( or as wet as gravel can be).

Lo and behold, they didn’t rot an mass! Instead they plumped up and looks much happier now. Hopefully it will be a bit of sun too this summer, which would benefit them.

Very interesting climate, your plants see snow till June, and my plants have never seen snow in their lives.

nes wrote: ↑Mon Jun 20, 2022 4:08 pm Very interesting climate, your plants see snow till June, and my plants have never seen snow in their lives.

Yes, it’s a reason for the name on this blog That said, I have had more flowers on my cacti than I expected when I started collecting again. There are still small patches of snow/ice here and there in the neighbourhood were there are very little or now sun at all.

Hi Mrs Green
Windowsill to me means they sit in the window or on a ledge of a window. Normally the collection would be limited in size. I have to assume that your collection has grown considerably since you started posting and they all can not be sitting on the original windowsill.
Mike M

mikethecactusguy wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 1:23 pm Hi Mrs Green
Windowsill to me means they sit in the window or on a ledge of a window. Normally the collection would be limited in size. I have to assume that your collection has grown considerably since you started posting and they all can not be sitting on the original windowsill.
Mike M

Hi Mikethecactusguy ; Ah,no we are not speaking about a windowsill but windowsills (and benches and tables near bye too.. ) Maybee you are thinking about One Windowsill? Yes, the collection have grown a bit.. In retrospect I should have listened to Aiko who told me that despite my climate I could expect flowers on several of the cacti and DaveW who mentioned that british growers usually didn’t kept large species, due to space limitations.

In the beginning ( or not tht long ago for that matter..) I bought ‘everything’ cacti, not thinking about the space limitations. Today I wouldn’t have bought large and fastgrowing Opuntias or cerei. I am getting better at ‘passing not suitable cacti ‘ in shops! Last visit to a garden senter and I just looked at all the cerei and a very nice Melo with a cephalium, not buying any of them !

That said, I did bought the Astrophytums..but they are small at least!

Random

Seems the flowers on that Fero do get bigger. Looks great.

Also great to see that rescued monstose Opuntia came through so well, it was in rough shape.

greenknight wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 2:59 pm Seems the flowers on that Fero do get bigger. Looks great.

Also great to see that rescued monstose Opuntia came through so well, it was in rough shape.

Thank you Greenknight Yes It does and the flowers last a bit too. I am happy with the recovery of the Opuntia. Seeing the new growth on it it got me wondering; If this was a normal plant the new growth would be called pads or cladoles. But what is the new growth on a monstrose Opuntia ( or other cactus with cladoles) called?

I suppose that they're still cladodes if they're separate segments, though it's hard to tell where one leaves off and the next begins. This cactus seems to have a prolific branching habit and is crested as well, which gives it a very complex structure1

greenknight wrote: ↑Fri Jun 24, 2022 6:59 am I suppose that they're still cladodes if they're separate segments, though it's hard to tell where one leaves off and the next begins. This cactus seems to have a prolific branching habit and is crested as well, which gives it a very complex structure1

Thank you Greenknight Yes that was what I was wondering about. On a normal plant there is a clear division between the ‘old’ pad and the new pad but on this one it seems a bit more difficult to see were the the new pad ‘starts’.